The Charlatans: You Cross My Path review

A new Charlatans album. Put it over there, with all the others

You Cross My Path is one of the most incendiary, genre-bending releases of this or any musical generation, fusing the dry existential ache of Joy Division, the electro-alchemy of The Aphex Twin and the fluid majesty of Walter Carlos' musique concrete at its most bewitching and baroque. It is a heady and profound cocktail of sonic textures and possibilities, a music that seems to emanate from some dark, profound place in the mass consciousness... no, sorry, I can’t keep a straight face.

It's another Charlatans album. They've made 10 now. It's the usual mix of chugging grooves, drum shuffles and monotone vocals from the band who would once have killed their own grandmothers to be the Stone Roses, and who now rival Ocean Colour Scene as British rock's most dogged journeymen. There is little to differentiate it from their previous nine releases except that, on tracks like Oh! Vanity and Mis-takes, a certain sweet plangency in Mark Collins' guitar and Tim Burgess' voice leaves them sounding oddly like early New Order. Otherwise, it's dad-rock business as usual. Their loyal fans will love it and nobody else will give a stuff.

More to try: Stone Roses – Stone Roses Ocean Colour Scene – Moseley Shoals Kasabian - Kasabian